The meatiest part of the wing is actually meat cut from the breast, so I would consider them white meat. If I asked for all white meat at a fried chicken place, it wouldn't surprise me to get a mix of breasts and wings, but it would surprise me to get just wings. If I asked for all dark meat, I'd be annoyed if that included wings.

I can't say if they do it this way at Popeyes (there isn't one anywhere near me), but at KFC they have a 1-piece meal with sides that they specifically say is one breast (presumably to avoid the prospect of getting a wing or a drumstick as your one piece of chicken). When I order one of those types of meals, I usually get a 2-piece and specify that I want a thigh and a drumstick, since I prefer dark meat but don't really want either two thighs (too much) or two drumsticks (not enough).

I also know that a lot of fast food restaurants in general are franchised, so I wouldn't necessarily judge an entire chain on a single location, if the issue was primarily the service and not the food itself.

BG: Last year we were not allowed to get in line for anything earlier than two hours before the sale time. This year they used a different format on Thursday for different items.

(1) Monday before Thanksgiving they had an ad for the Leap Pad for $39 at 8:00 am, at 8:10 there weren't any and there wasn't anyone in that department. The store was very busy and I went on to my office and got on the phone trying to find out if I could get a rain check . First they couldn't get anyone in toys to answer, then finally I got an uninterested young person; she was clueless about Leap Pads and would not give me her name, then I was transferred to Amanda. Amanda said she was the day manager and she really couldn't help me, her exact words, "too bad, so sad. Apparently, we only got a few of these, like maybe 8 and we don't give rain checks on Black Friday specials." I asked to speak to her supervisor and she said Chris wasn't available, who is Chris I asked, she said the store manager. Then I asked who was over him and she said no one -"really, I said, he doesn't answer to anyone? Is there a district manager?" You mean Kevin? I said, "Amanda, your lack of helpfulness is overwhelming, is Kevin the district manager?" Yes. Where might I find Kevin? Amanda said at one of his stores I guess. Well what stores does he have? His region she said. "Oh my Goodness," I said, "which stores are in his region?" I finally got a list of stores, thanked her and hung up. I am writing to corporate and anyone else that will listen to me. At this point it's not about the Leap Pad, it's about the uncooperative management. I got the Leap Pad online - same matching price.

(2) Their Black Friday deal had a 50" tv for under $300 (this was not in the 1 hour guaranteed special) that my daughter wanted in the Thursday, 8:00 pm sale. We got to the store about 6:45, there was no line and were told they sold out about 6:30. I said last year you wouldn't let us form a line more than two hours before the sale and this year you are already sold out?! She said we used wrist bands, after 5:00 you could ask for a wristband and then pick your tv up after 8:00 and we are out of wristbands already so we are sold out of the tv's. I said, I would like to talk to someone else, someone in management. My daughter and I (calmly and politely) told that person that last year we were only allowed to get in line 2 hours before the sale and this year they used a completely different format - starting 3 hours early. He was incredibly abrupt and said this year they decided to try something different. I very calmly said, "you know it would be helpful to shoppers if you would let the public know what format you are going to use in the future. No shopper should be expected to spend the day here because there is no consistency to the formats you use for these specials. There is a line for some things, there are wristbands for others and I bought a couple of items online this morning already" He never acknowledged my statement, just walked off. Later we ran into a friend and she said she threw a screaming fit a few minutes ago and they got her a wristband - so apparently fits work, civility doesn't (and there were more 50" televisions somewhere else )

Some of the other sales in this same Walmart used a single file line until the item was sold out - it was different formats for different items - very frustrating.

Now this tv was not available online, in stores only. Two of the other items in that same sale ad, at the same advertised time, I bought online at 9:00 Thursday morning - again, no consistency to their sales formats.

(3) Thursday evening when we got home I looked at their clothing sales (because you couldn't even get close to anything in that department in the store) and ordered 8 pairs of sweats and a couple of pairs of jeans at great prices. I checked out online and went on to bed. Yesterday I went online to check my account and find out when everything is going to be arriving at the store (couple of things not available for home shipping) and much to my shock and anger - none of the sweats or jeans are shipping, it shows the order as cancelled and out of stock! Agghhh!

I get that Thursday/Friday are a nightmare for the retail employees, there was a group pepper sprayed and a young boy trampled at another Walmart nearby (we have 4 within a 30 mile range). But some of these problems the retailer brings on themselves with this kind of inconsistency (I am not excusing the shoppers for their contributing bad behavior).

I like the wristband idea as opposed to ripping off plastic wrap and letting it be a free for all, I also like the single file line, I've never had any problems standing patiently in a line. Target shoppers lined up around the building and when the doors were open they allowed 20 shoppers to enter then paused and allowed another 20 in until they met what they consider their maximum capacity for safety. And there is no store in this area with friendlier, more helpful employees than our Target (well Home Depot is pretty close).

I live in an area where unemployment is still well under 4% (maybe closer to 2% even), if you want a job they are hiring everywhere. Wages are top dollar in my area ($12 an hour at McDonald's) so I feel like employers are forced to keep bad employees on right now, I hate it.

The annual service on my turbo diesel has just come due; I booked it in for last Tuesday. I booked the MOT for the same time. (MOT = annual safety and roadworthiness check; used to be done by the Ministry of Transport, hence MOT. Still called MOT but now run by VOSA, Vehicle and Operator Services Agency. It's franchised out to licenced garages. You may have the MOT done at any time, but ideally you want it done not more than one month before the previous one runs out, because then they will postdate it to the anniversary date. That is, if my MOT runs out on 6 December 2013, I can have the test done after 6 November and they'll give me a certificate to 6 December 2014 but if it's done on 1 November, the renewal date will be 1 November 2014. Also, if your MOT has run out, the only place you may drive your car is to an MOT test centre; it's illegal to drive a car with no current MOT and doing so will probably invalidate your insurance. With me so far?)

The service this year was the Big One at which everything is changed, topped up and made nice. It costs £HugeSum. Like about three times the standard service charge. Well, I intend to drive this car until one of us dies, so I swallowed hard, and approved the work. Local Honda garage sent a man out to collect the car, told me they would call when it was done, or if the MOT showed up any work to be done over and above the service.

They called mid afternoon: there was a problem. The Hippy Chick begins to hyperventilate because she can't afford a Problem. No, no, it's not a Problem with my car. The problem is that they can't do the MOT because some essential piece of equipment has died on them, and essential piece of equipment doesn't belong to the garage, it belongs to VOSA, and they aren't allowed to touch it, so no MOTs can be done until VOSA has sent out a Little Man and had it repaired.

Now this is not at all convenient, but you know, Stuff happens, it can't be helped, and there's no point in getting my knickers in a twist about it. I make a note in my diary every year and as soon as we're into the one month's grace period, I book the MOT so that if the car fails and they have to order in parts, I've got a day or two's breathing space. So there's ten days before my MOT runs out, it's no big deal to make another appointment for today. I say I'll bring the car in myself, they needn't collect it. I'll drop it off at 9:30; the nice man apologising for the inconvenience says it will only take an hour, and helpfully assures me that actually, they'd done most of the checks before the machine went down, so although they can't issue the certificate, I needn't worry, it will go through first time.

So today, I drive the Younger Chick to school, and go home to do this and that and wait for the rush hour traffic to die down a little. Honda Garage telephones me to tell me that the man will be with me shortly to collect my car.

Huh? But it's not being collected. I'm bringing it in. Receptionist and I talk for a minute at cross purposes before I establish that no, I really am bringing it in.

I bring it in. I deliver that car at 9:20, ten minutes ahead of the booked time. I tell them that I have errands to run in town, and I'll be back some time around 11.

At 11:50 I return and... they don't seem to have my paperwork. Would I like to take a seat and it won't be long?

At 12:00 the Receptionist goes for lunch.

At 12:30 when she returns, I ask, politely, if rather shortly, where my car is, because actually, I have things to do, and I can't do them here. Receptionist is very sorry; the MOT computer system (it's all now registered over the internet, not done on paper) has gone down, and they're having to take the cars over to the VW garage across the road. Well, full marks for initiative and getting the tests done, but minus several million for communication - and bear in mind that the VW garage is not unreasonably taking its own clients first. But it will be ready any minute!

At 1:40 I had my keys back. If she'd told me at 12 that it would take that long, I would have asked to be taken home and for them to deliver the car back later - they offer this as a standard service, so it's not SS-y to ask - and maybe got some things done. As it was, by the time I got home, and out to do the thing I should have been doing an hour and a half earlier, and back, I was late collecting the Younger Chick.

I'm just inclined to think that two pieces of equipment failing within a week? Poor. I've still got 3 days on my old certificate but it's not uncommon for people to have only 1. I could afford to wait but most people won't be able to. But not telling me the reason my car wasn't ready? Not allowing me to decide if it was convenient to wait? Not, actually, allowing me to decide that I wanted, in that case, to take my car somewhere else?

Sorry, guys. There are plenty of other garages with MOT accreditation and guess what? I'm going to use one of them.

The meatiest part of the wing is actually meat cut from the breast, so I would consider them white meat. If I asked for all white meat at a fried chicken place, it wouldn't surprise me to get a mix of breasts and wings, but it would surprise me to get just wings. If I asked for all dark meat, I'd be annoyed if that included wings.

Ha! And I would be annoyed if it didn't include wings! Just goes to show you can never please everybody

The meatiest part of the wing is actually meat cut from the breast, so I would consider them white meat. If I asked for all white meat at a fried chicken place, it wouldn't surprise me to get a mix of breasts and wings, but it would surprise me to get just wings. If I asked for all dark meat, I'd be annoyed if that included wings.

Ha! And I would be annoyed if it didn't include wings! Just goes to show you can never please everybody

Exactly. It's why I really do typically specify which specific types of dark or white meat are my preference, even though I'm not always able to actually get said preference. At least then I can make an informed decision about what I want instead, rather than having them give me an all white meat meal with 3 wings...

The WalMart and the garage stories remind me of a good one. The WalMart Tire and Lube by where I used to work.

I needed new tires one day. They had stopped taking appointments, but I dropped my car off before work, checked it in. They said they'd call me when it was done, I told them not to call because I'd be at work and my cell phone wouldn't even be turned on. So I wasn't surprised when I got off work and there was no call from WalMart.

What I was surprised at was when I got there and my car still had the old, balding tires on it. They hadn't even moved it. Oh, I was mad. I told them that I would be bringing it in before the Tire and Lube opened in the morning, it would be waiting in the parking lot and I'd have the key in the key drop box, and they would do it first thing, because I needed this done. The person working the counter (wasn't listed on the wall of Tire and Lube Specialists, so I have no idea if it was her usual place or not) said that they don't take appointments, she can't guarantee me a spot. I explained to her that my car had already been there for nearly nine hours that day, it hadn't been touched, it WOULD be among the first done the next day. She left a note.

I dropped my car off, put my keys in the drop box the next morning along with a service ticket and my work number to call me if there were any problems. Never got a call, nothing on my cell phone after work. I walked back and my car was in the bay. They had literally just started on it, and it would still be a few hours before it was done, was that okay?

Eventually I just got a book from the book section and sat down and read. Lady behind the counter tried to ask me if I had paid for the book, and I said no, but they had no magazines for customers to read while they sat and waited, and my car was supposed to be one of the first ones done, I was waiting an extra two hours on top of them having had it for at least seven after they had opened, and the book would be undamaged by the time I left.

I will never go back to that location. Yes, WalMart offers a nice guarantee on their tires, you can get them fixed anywhere in the country, but I no longer work near there and nothing is ever done in a timely manner. Another lady there was complaining that it had taken two days to replace a battery. There was nothing else wrong with the car, just a dead battery.

Some of the other sales in this same Walmart used a single file line until the item was sold out - it was different formats for different items - very frustrating.

For some reason I picture myself, arms covered in wristbands rocking sitting on the floor and rocking in the frozen section muttering "I get a line, they give me a wristband, I show that wristband at a different line, I get another wristband. Lots of wristbands, lots of lines, no stuff. Wristbands, I have my wristbands!", Walmart never seems very able to communicate with their employees what to do. It's very, every person for themselves in there. I call it training for the zombie apocalypse.

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Target shoppers lined up around the building and when the doors were open they allowed 20 shoppers to enter then paused and allowed another 20 in until they met what they consider their maximum capacity for safety. And there is no store in this area with friendlier, more helpful employees than our Target (well Home Depot is pretty close).

On the other hand Target, always seems to know exactly what they're doing. I know one year I was there and it was pretty busy (this was before we moved black Friday to Thursday), line to the back of the store, but it moved pretty quickly. And rather then line up at individual registers (like you usually do at traget), they'd wait for an open one and send you over there. Pleanty of cheery helpful staff. The only scuffle I saw was in the electronics (which had its own line) one guy started smarting off to an employee who told him to stand a little closer to the wall (so others could get by) he said he'd do what he wanted who was going to stop him. At which point the police officer that Target employed for the day (yes! in my area all the stores/malls/ect have a few armed officers on duty, it seems to help keep the peace if you know the guy with the handcuffs can and will arrest you), told the person he needed to calm down or leave.